This is the sixth in a series of eleven articles on
the top ten wilderness survival skills, things you should know before you go
into the wilderness. To read the
previous article go HERE
– Author’s Note
The Number
Six, Top Ten Wilderness Survival Skill: Fire
knowing how to build a fire, whether it is windy, raining, snowing or sunny.
 |
The “Rule of Threes”, graphic by the Author.
Since
after a wilderness emergency, you can only survive for about three hours
without fire and shelter, after caring for any injuries and finding a shelter, your
next priority is to build a fire!
The Basics
of Lighting a Fire
There
has been a lot written on how to start a fire, what type of fire-lay is the
best, how to start a fire when it is wet, etc.
However, I have
noticed that whenever I teach people how to build a fire, the mistakes that
they make are one of the following four things; not understanding the fire
triangle, confusing kindling for tinder, not gathering enough kindling and wood,
or, and this is the one thing that almost everyone gets wrong, forgetting that
fire burns up! In
the end, fire building is one of those wilderness skills that you can only get
better at, if you practice, practice, practice! So, before you start practicing, let’s talk
about the basics of lighting a fire and the four
most common mistakes.
The Fire Triangle
 |
From Wikimedia, “Fire triangle.svg”, by Gustavb, March 7, 2006, HERE.
To build a fire you must understand the fire
triangle. The fire triangle shows the
three things that you must have to start a fire: oxygen, heat, and fuel. All three of these must be present, in the
proper amount, to start a fire. If any of
them missing, or are not in the proper amount, then you cannot start and
sustain your fire. Air, or oxygen, is
needed to start and sustain your fire, and the supply air to your fire can be
increased by building your campfire so that the wind can aid combustion, or by
blowing gently on your beginning fire to help it grow. Also, you need heat, from a match or a
lighter, to raise the temperature of the tinder and kindling to its ignition
point. And lastly, you need dry tinder,
kindling and fuel in the proper sizes and amounts to build and sustain your campfire.
Tinder,
Kindling and Wood...
 |
An excerpt from Combat and Survival Volume 4, page 227.
Most
people don’t know the difference between tinder,
kindling and fuel wood. Tinder isn’t
kindling and kindling isn’t fuel wood.
In a nutshell, tinder catches the sparks from your flint and steel, or the
flame from your match or lighter and ignites your kindling, as your kindling burns
it provides enough heat and flames to light your fuel wood on fire. The more surface area the tinder, kindling
and wood has the faster it will catch on fire and burn. Tinder is the smallest, finest, and fluffiest
of the three and has the greatest surface area; kindling is next in size and
fuel wood the largest and has the least surface area.1
Oh,
and your tinder and the kindling must be bone dry. Using damp wood is a mistake that many people
make and while it might not be a critical mistake once your fire is going
strong and hot, damp wood can make it difficult to start of your fire. So, when gathering your tinder, kindling and initial
fuel wood, stack the odds in your favor by using the driest tinder, kindling
and fuel that you can find.
 |
Graphic by the Author.
Always
“Look Up, Not Down” to find the driest tinder, kindling and wood. As Clyde Ormond wrote in the Complete Book
of Outdoor Lore, page 129, “Fuel...should be obtained, if possible, from
standing timber. Even during the driest
weather when the earth is parched, wood lying on the ground will have soaked up
dampness”. Look underneath live
evergreen trees for dead and dry branches, break branches off dead standing
trees or, if it is raining, split off the wet outside edges of dead standing
timber to reach the dry wood inside.
Also,
don’t try to use green wood to start your fire, this is another common error, because
it is full of sap, which is mostly water, and it takes a strong, hot fire to
dry it out and ignite it.
How Much is
Enough...
 |
The biggest difference between tinder, kindling and fuel wood is size. An excerpt of “How To Build A Campfire”, from Scoutmastercg.com, HERE.
To
get a fire going quickly and easily, you need to have the right amounts of all
three on hand before you light that first match. Remember to have plenty of fuel wood on hand,
as it always burns faster than people imagine.
Craig White, a Canadian survival expert, teaches that you will burn
through a generous armload of wrist sized sticks each hour. In addition, it is worth knowing that just over
two pounds (one kilogram) of wood is required to boil one quart (a liter) of
water when cooking over a campfire2.
Remember that
Fire Burns Up!
 |
An excerpt from Winter Camping, by Warwick S. Carpenter, page 91
Many
people will drop a match on top of a bundle of tinder and then wonder why it
goes out. Don’t forget hot flames and
gases rise! Always turn your tinder
bundle or “bird’s nest”3, so that the hot flame of your match
or lighter rises into the tinder and then into the surrounding kindling. Put your flaming tinder bundle into your fire-lay
and carefully add more kindling above it, so that the additional kindling will catch
on fire, and then put fuel wood over your burning kindling so that it too,
ignites as the flames climb up.
 |
While pinching the tinder bundle or “bird’s nest” against the bark shield, turn it so that the flames will light the tinder and flare up into the kindling surrounding it. Photograph by the Author.
For more on fire building check out these articles, “Fire Burns Up! ©”, HERE, “The Book of Knowledge, Camping and Camp Lore, 1957©”, HERE and “Survival Tips From Jack London, Part One©”, HERE.
Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Your
Campfire and How to Use It ©”, where we will talk more campfires and how to
use them.
 |
Your campfire, photograph by the Author.
I
hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me
on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The
Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE,
and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free
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announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at
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That
is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!
Notes
1
Additionally, surface area is the reason why split logs, which have a greater
surface area than whole logs, catch fire and burn faster than a whole
logs. Oh, and whole logs are frequently
covered with bark and bark is naturally fire resistant.
2
From Introduction to Biomass Energy Conversions, by Sergio Capareda.
Mr. Capareda calculates that “1 kg (2.2 lbs.) of wood has several times
more energy than that required to boil 1 L of water”, however since campfires
are very inefficient much of that energy will be lost and thus one kilogram of
wood per one liter of water is a good rule of thumb.
3
 |
Photographs by the Author.
Just
like a bird’s nest (above left), the bird’s nest tinder bundle, (above right) has
the softest, fluffiest tinder stuff in the center. The bird’s nest tinder bundle in the picture
above is made with a ring of fine pine twigs, surrounding a ring of yellow
birch bark, which is around toilet paper and a piece of fuzzed up jute
string. Note that I am holding it
against a piece of bark, this bark will shield my fingers from the heat of the
flames.
Sources
Capareda,
Sergio; Introduction to Biomass Energy Conversions,
[CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, Florida, 2014], p. 69,
https://books.google.com/books?id=eFLOBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA69&lpg=PA69&dq=how+many+kilograms+of+wood+does+it+take+to+boil+1+liter+of+water&source=bl&ots=3DEm8Rl7ad&sig=ACfU3U034BzjsPtB1B0Hp1hhn--ZzGft5w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj4ioeAoZ_yAhVtKVkFHQPOB-sQ6AF6BAgaEAM#v=onepage&q=how%20many%20kilograms%20of%20wood%20does%20it%20take%20to%20boil%201%20liter%20of%20water&f=false,
accessed August 7, 2021
Carpenter,
Warwick S.; Winter Camping, [The Macmillan Company, New York, NY, 1931],
page 91
Combat
and Survival Volume 4, [H. S. Stuttman, Inc., Westover,
Connecticut, 1991], p 227
Green, Clarke; “How to Build a Campfire”, November 7, 2012, [Dynamik-Gen,
2019] https://scoutmastercg.com/how-to-build-a-campfire/
Hough,
Emerson; Out of Doors, [D. Appleton and Company, New York, and London,
1915], pages 253 to 262, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5QadmvhX8a3wUB-PjU-Mf8AM4ugTJLowe10sMUX8EQpXJqLDj-nDH6-M1y4HjNDMW2qBpdh4_A20snog1YjlV7pBWS9Of0qIgxv_d7M83kzk0u59EyjHjQ5VlJQYRi8ByD5sgC0sXLQufhcQEknu8tAdLnZtX-3ROE2WFL78Sciuj_DaUz8Ypd-Keipthwdq13wVs-wjF2U41a6TujFN-FdWMIKJp13ASz4NFkVfSdKC58ox5ms7q0xNm39ulRn5cFQt0cuax,
Accessed October 23, 2021
Innes-Taylor,
Alan; Arctic Survival Guide, [Scandinavian Airlines System, Stockholm,
1957], page 64-65
Klusmann,
Wes H.; The Book of Knowledge, Children’s Encyclopedia, Volume 3, “Camping and Camp Lore”, [The Grolier Society Inc., New
York, 1957], pages 1031 to 1038
Kreps,
E.H.; Woodcraft, [A. R. Harding Publishing Company, Columbus, OH, 1978],
page 38
Ormond, Clyde; Complete
Book of Outdoor Lore, Ninth Printing, [Outdoor Life, Harper & Row, New
York, NY,1971], pages 123 to 138
Wikimedia, “Fire
triangle.svg”, by Gustavb, March 7, 2006, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_triangle#/media/File:Fire_triangle.svg, accessed August 1, 2021
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